The owner or owners of the land subject to such claim or right separately or jointly may bring a suit in equity praying for the extinguishment of such claim or right, to which suit shall be made party defendant the person by whom such claim by such writing was derived or reserved, or his successors in title, by name so far as known, and as defendants unknown, so far as such successors in title are unknown. The venue for such a suit shall be as specified in subdivision 3 of § 8.01-261. The court shall allow a period of not less than six months from the time the cause is docketed and set for hearing to elapse within which time the defendant may explore and discover commercial minerals, coals, oils, ores or subsurface substances, if any, and in the absence of satisfactory evidence to the contrary, it shall be presumed that there are no commercial minerals, coals, oils, ores or subsurface substances in or on the land, and the court shall enter a decree declaring the claim or right to be a cloud on the title and releasing the land therefrom and extinguishing the same; but if the defendant or defendants shall thereupon prove that there are commercial minerals, coals, oils, ores or subsurface substances in or on the land, the court shall require such minerals, coals, oils, ores or subsurface substances to be charged with taxes according to law.
1924, p. 720; 1930, p. 721; Michie Code 1942, § 6239a; 1944, p. 49; 1977, c. 624.
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